Home-style ── Yoshoku (Japanese Western-style dishes)
Pooku Chappu
Pork chap — a thick-cut pork loin in a ketchup-based demi-glace-style sauce
A thick-cut pork loin coated in a ketchup-based demi-glace-style sauce. Ketchup is said to have taken the place of madeira sauce in the style that stuck, and well-known shops remain scattered across Hokkaido.
- Meat
What it's made of
A thick-cut pork loin is generously coated in a demi-glace-style sauce with a ketchup tang. Unlike the madeira sauce used for a classic pork chop, the sweet-and-sour pull of ketchup and the sweetness of onion are said to be the point here. Some shops serve a cut thick enough to spill over the edge of the plate, with generous portions part of the draw.
How it's made
The usual method is to sear or slow-roast a thick-cut pork loin, then finish it with a ketchup-based demi-glace-style sauce. Many shops cook onion down until sweet before adding it to the sauce, and the dish is said to have a long history as a home-cooked staple too, with the seasoning varying widely from one restaurant to the next.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that as the American pork chop was translated for Japanese taste, ketchup is said to have taken the place of madeira sauce in a demi-glace-style sauce that stuck. No single shop's origin is clear, but it's also said to have grown up as a home-cooking favorite, and well-known shops remain scattered across Hokkaido, a region with its own history of frontier settlement.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
Dishes in the same style
- Biifu ShichuuBeef and root vegetables simmered in a demi-glace-style sauce. Introduced as a high-end dish at Tokyo yoshoku restaurants in the Meiji era, it's said to have settled onto home tables as packaged roux spread.
- HanbaaguA pan-fried patty of ground meat mixed with onion and breadcrumbs. Said to have shifted toward a fully cooked, bulked-up style to suit a food culture wary of raw ground meat.